To mark the 140th anniversary of the "Large Dragons" stamps, China Post has organized a traveling exhibition of artifacts tracing the development of Chinese postage. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China issued its first postage stamps in 1878, a set called "Large Dragons" as the patterns featured a dragon, the emblem of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was a time when the empire faced both domestic chaos and foreign invasions.

To mark the 140th anniversary of the "Large Dragons" stamps, China Post has organized a traveling exhibition of artifacts tracing the development of Chinese postage.

The highlights of the exhibition are a complete "Large Dragons" set from the collection of the Tianjin Postage Museum and a postbox blue print from the Second Historic Archives of China in Nanjing.

The exhibition will tour Tianjin; Beijing; Yingkou, in Liaoning province; Yantai, in Shandong province and Shanghai from July 24 to Aug 26, the cities where China's postal services were first introduced.

The exhibition will also be a highlight of this year's Post Week, when activities will be held between Aug 4 to 9 across the country to promote stamp-collecting.

China Post will issue two sets of stamps during the event, including one featuring Landscapes of Four Seasons by Liu Songnian -- a master painter of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) -- which is now in the collection of the Palace Museum. The other set will be on the 24 Solar Terms.

To mark the 140th anniversary of the "Large Dragons" stamps, China Post has organized a traveling exhibition of artifacts tracing the development of Chinese postage. [Photo provided to China Daily]